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Monday, January 30, 2017

MONDAY NIGHT MASSACRE

Monday evening acting attorney general of the United States- Sally Yates- issued a memorandum to the justice department attorneys not to enforce or defend the President's executive order banning immigration. Yates believed the order to be illegal.

On Monday evening, in the face of what will now surely go down in history as The Yates Memo, the 45th POTUS fired Yates. Uno problemo....there is no one left in the Justice Department with clearance to see and seek warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court. But that didn't stop 45 from canning Yates and leaving this country blind. The President has now appointed Virginia US Attorney Dana Boente as acting US Attorney General until 45 can get his nominee approved by the Senate. On a saturday night in 1972, attorney general Elliot Richardson refused the order of President Richard M. Nixon to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox who was issuing subpoenas to the White House for tapes in his investigation of Watergate. Attorney General Richardson resigned rather than follow the illegal order of the President. The deputy assistant attorney general of the United States William Ruckelshaus then became acting attorney general and he also refused to fire Archibald Cox, so President Nixon fired him. In their confirmation hearings which occurred during the Watergate crisis, both Richardson and Ruckelshaus had given personal assurances to the senate that they would not interfere in Cox's investigation of Nixon. Nixon then turned to Robert Bork, who was the solicitor general of the of the United States and Bork fired Cox and we had ourselves a full blown constitutional crisis as attorneys with a conscious refused to follow an illegal order of the President of the United States. An order that the senate suspected could be issued and in which the lawyers had promised not to follow.And this episode which played out over a cold October Saturday night in 1973 was called the Saturday Night massacre and it remained a unique part of American history never to be replayed because we would never have a president as unhinged as Nixon was in his final days.....until now.

From that chaotic night in October, the Nixon presidency had less than 300 days to live. Oh for us to be so fortunate now. Senate Jeff Sessions is scheduled for a confirmation on Tuesday. BREAKING As the Monday night massacre unfolds as we get on our flight from the West coast to FLA, now comes word that POTUS 45 has fired the head of ICE- customs enforcement for the US. What if he fires everyone and no one will work for the US government? That's one way to stop a tyrant- peaceful resistance. Refuse to go to work. Fight the power. This is the 60's redux. Gonna have to get out our bellbottoms and tie die shirts. We knew we made the right decision in hanging on to them.

Oh for goodness sake. Trump is vile. But let's inject just a little reason into the hysteria.

This was no redux of the Saturday Night Massacre, and suggesting it was mostly suggests an utter lack of interest in both history and current events.

Yates declared she disagreed with the order and wouldn't defend the administration in court. She didn't offer a legal basis for refusing to defend it, her stance was moral and political. That's fine. She wanted to take a public stance, knowing she'd be out of her job today -- instead of at the end of the week when Sessions, for whom she would never work, takes office and she would simply have resigned.

Any president - ANY - would fire any acting AG who said she wouldn't defend the administration in court.

Hold. The fake news is making this out to be way worse. In fact, I'd buy some more. I'd also dump Starbucks asap. I'd consider shorting Starbucks if you don't own any; clearing an anti American company who prefers foreign, unvetted employees over Americans.

So we know that whoever trump nominates as a Supreme Court justice will be blocked and delayed by the sore loser dems. We've only been without one for a year. But that's how it is. In fairness, Mitch McConnell was a douche when he tried it against obama.

So here's a serious question: 1) how do you reconcile blocking a nominee whom was confirmed unanimously to a court of appreals ( i.e. Hardiman). Do you confirm him as you've done before, do you have an intern take a sentence from an obscure opinion out of context that vilify the guy, or 3) cry ( i.e. Shuminer)

Second, what if Trump nominated H Clinton? Do you confirm because she is your "nasty" woman, or filibuster on (non) principals just bc a republican nominated her? Food for thought

Another reason we need a multi party system.

We all know this is a petty system, either party will block the other s just to show how childish they are. But the dems better think real hard about how they act if they want to fairly represent their constituents. Lest they remember we have a republican president, house and senate. If they start playing games they ( and the citizens of this great country ) will be in for a big surprise as the republicans can be just as childish.

Time to work together and lead this country, not act like 2nd grade bitches

Even better story: Apparently it's traditional for the upper echelon at the State Dept to tender formal, meaningless resignation letters to each new incoming administration. Traditionally the resignations are held in abeyance for the months or years it takes to identify, vet, and train the new hires.

Last week, Trump shocked the entire Dept by simply accepting the resignations. Bye.

So the State Dept that brought us Syria and ISIS doesnt get to stick around, attend diplomatic cocktail parties and "train" new bureaucrats. Lol.

And now an "acting" AG (whose tenure is only prolonged because Dems are dicking around with Sessions, whose appointment they cannot and will not ultimately block) refuses to enforce a perfectly legal EO. Lol, bye.

Sometimes the swamp drains itself.

Even at the height of the campaign insanity I never guessed the first ten days would be so triumphant:

Preparing to fire 20% of feds. Hiring freeze. Banning lobbying for admin members. Shitcanning NEA and PBS. Middle East war-torn nation immigration pause effective NOW. EO to start building the wall. EO to start building the pipeline. Hundreds of thousands of anti-democracy shit-heads screaming hysterically in the streets and disrupting airports. 100% turnover in State. Firing an an insubordinate, lifelong bureaucrat AG. Firing an insubordinate head of ICE.

This is all within TEN DAYS. And we don't even have the SCOTUS pick yet!

Hey Social Justice Warriors, Iran's foreign minister, Mohammed ( of course his name is Mohammed ) is illegally testing ballistic missiles. Let's welcome all Iranians to the US, and give them your job at Starbucks. Perhaps you can ask Mohammed his position on letting Americans into his country. I understand they treat women well, with the slaverty, honor killings, right to vote, public hearings, acid attacks, etc...

Shame on republicans for not confirming Garland. Stupid move. Hoping the dems don't play tit for tat with our Supreme Court. This is our country, not a frat. Hopefully our elected officials won't further embarrass our democracy.

Fact - there is not a human on the planet that trump will nominate that the dems won't fight. They should be representing their state, as constitutionally mandated. Too bad pelosi, Reid shuminer only care about showmanship, not patriotism. Our country elected Trump, support him or GTFO

Im happy as hell that the GOP didnt confirm Garland. Now we can blow up the filibuster, just as the Dems taught us, and force the confirmation through. Nothing in the Constitution about SCOTUS process needing a filibuster, that's just a Senate rule, again as the dems taught us. Thanks Mr. Reid!

It was a gamble failing to give Garland his hearing, because Hillary could have replaced Garland with a superlib -- but hey, elections have consequences.

And a hundred bucks says Thomas retires this summer. Another pick for Trump.

And how long you think RBG is going to last? Shes 140 years old. Maybe Breyer and Kennedy too.

Trump is going to pack this court. Even as a one termer, which he wont be, he will have the chance to shape this court for 30 or 40 years.

Something that put a smile on my face tonight: NONE of this would have been possible without Debbie Wasserman Schultz rigging the primaries, debates, and DNC funding to brute-force the most unlikable candidate in modern memory.

When is Trump going to start arresting the muslims who put theirs and their families lives on the line for our boys in Iraq again? I felt much safer knowing our allies were being detained and hassled at iairports and seaports.

I see that most of the commenters expect the democrats to endorse gorsuch, whose views on assisted suicide ineluctably determine his views on abortion. Or you expect the democrats to at least facilitate rather than obstruct gorsuch's inevitable confirmation.

How many of these commenters contacted Sen. Rubio to urge him facilitate a vote on Garland.

Obama selected Garland because he was a moderate, and not young, in order to appease the GOP. That cannot be said of Trump's nomination of Gorsuch, which was intended as red meat for the base and provocation for everyone else.

Why would you expect the democrats to normalize this situation or decontextualize it by going along like sheep. The fact that democrats have acted this way in the past explains why we now have Trump. Those of you who support him now soon won't, at least if you uncurl from your defensive crouch and start reading the news.

If the acting AG had any sense of order, she should have voiced her concern, which was her privilege, but then acknowledge that since her opinion conflicted with the President, she should have offered her resignation. Instead she grandstanded. So the temper tantrum President met the grandstanding acting AG. Yeah this is how government is supposed to work. NOT.

"Rumpole, are you able to determine how many of these MAGA comments are from the same person? There can't be that many assholes, can there?" There are a bunch of them, 62,979,636 at last count. Less than were for Hillary, but, still a lot of assholes.

The MAGA commenters are probably Russian trolls. Their English reads like a google translation. Then again, MAGA-men (these trolls are definitely male) are not known for their smarts. That could explain their poor writing skills.